brown butter blondies

It's a Saturday evening.  A woman in her mid-twenties* is lying on the sofa watching re-runs of CSI.  The front door opens.  A tall** man enters and heads straight for the kitchen, sniffing the air like a basset hound.  

Boyfriend:  Did you make brownies?

Me:  No, I made blondies.

Boyfriend:  What are blondies?  

Me:  Well, they're sort of like brownies without the chocolate.

Boyfriend:  Why would you make brownies without the chocolate?

Me:  Because they taste good.  They taste like butterscotch with a hint of nuttiness from brown butter and just enough salt to make them pretty much the best thing ever.  

Boyfriend:  But they don't have chocolate in. 

Me:  Just try one and shut up.  

* There may be some artistic license here.

** A bit more artistic license.  A girl can dream.  

If the little skit above hasn't convinced you to go and make these blondies right now, I don't know what will.  I had the inspiration of making blondies using brown butter after the success of my brown butter cookies but, like so many of my moments of genius, it turned out that someone else had got there first. And when that someone is Martha Stewart, I knew that I was on to a winner.  If you can stop yourself from eating them until after dinner, I recommend serving them warm with a scoop of rum ice cream.

Brown butter blondies
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

285g unsalted butter
150g dark brown sugar
150g light brown sugar
170g caster sugar
3 large eggs
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
260g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

(I meant to add some chocolate chips too but am an idiot and forgot)

1.  Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.  Grease a baking tin with butter (Martha suggests a 9 inch by 13 inch tin.  Mine was about 20cm square...).
2.  In a saucepan, cook the butter until it turns brown.  Take it off the heat and allow it to cool.
3.  Beat the sugar and cooled butter together until combined.  Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy.
4.  Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together and fold into the mixture.  When combined, pour into your baking tin and bake for 35-40 minutes.  A toothpick inserted into the middle should come out cleanish with no raw batter attached.
5.  Allow to cool in the pan before turning onto a wire rack.  Cut into pieces as desired.